Rise of the expert amateur: DIY projects, communities, and cultures
Abstract
This paper presents a large-scale study of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) communities, cultures and projects. We focus on the adoption and appropriation of human-computer interaction and collaboration technologies and their role in motivating and sustaining communities of builders, crafters and makers. Our survey of over 2600 individuals across a range of DIY communities (Instructables, Dorkbot, Craftster, Ravelry, Etsy, and Adafruit) reveals a unique set of values, emphasizing open sharing, learning, and creativity over profit and social capital. We derive design implications to embed these values into other everyday practices, and hope that our work serves to engage CHI practitioners with DIY expert amateurs.
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Kuznetsov and Paulos (2010) surveyed over 2,600 individuals across a range of do-it-yourself online communities and found that their shared values emphasized open sharing and learning over profit and social capital.
“For their conference paper, Kuznetsov and Paulos (2010) surveyed over 2,600 individuals across a range of do-it-yourself online communities and found that their shared values emphasized open sharing and learning over profit and social capital.”
From Who Is Welcome Here? A Culturally Responsive Content Analysis of Makerspace Websites (2020) · cites this paper as Kuznetsov and Paulos, 2010
Cites
Possessions and the Extended Self
Belk, R. W. (1988) · Journal of Consumer Research · doi:10.1086/209154 · Cited by 9,064 · see citing works
Triggers and barriers to customizing software
Mackay, W. E. (1991) · Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems Reaching through technology - CHI '91 · doi:10.1145/108844.108867 · Cited by 364 · see citing works
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Who Is Welcome Here? A Culturally Responsive Content Analysis of Makerspace Websites
Kye, H. (2020) · Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER) · doi:10.7771/2157-9288.1190 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
- Authors
- Kuznetsov, S., & Paulos, E.
- Affiliations
- Carnegie Mellon University (US)
- ORCID
- Paulos, Eric
- Venue
- Proceedings of the 6th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction: Extending Boundaries
- Publisher
- ACM
- Published
- 2010-10-16
- Pages
- 295-304
- OpenAlex
- W1965153126
- Cited by
- 413
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 23 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 32 · 2021: 42 · 2020: 32 · 2019: 23 · 2018: 28 · 2017: 40 · 2016: 30 · 2015: 30 · 2014: 31 · 2013: 15 · 2012: 13
- FWCI
- 11.78
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Science Applications › Open Source Software Innovations
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Innovative Human-Technology Interaction
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Museology › Crafts, Textile, and Design
- Keywords
- maker culture, collaboration technologies, community sustainability, open sharing, creativity, Etsy, craft communities
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